A range of printer types have evolved wherein an image is constructed from ink selectively applied to a page in dot format. In U.S. Pat. No. 6,045,710 titled ‘Self-aligned construction and manufacturing process for monolithic print heads’ to the inventor Kia Silverbrook there is set out an assessment of the prior art to drop on demand printers along with its particular manufacturing process.
A microelectomechanical drop on demand print head hereafter referred to as a Memjet print head has been described in co-pending United States Patent Applications filed simultaneously to the present application and hereby incorporated by cross reference:
PCT Application NumberDocket NumberPCT/AU00/00591MJ62PCT/AU00/00578IJ52PCT/AU00/00579IJM52PCT/AU00/00592MJ63PCT/AU00/00590MJ58
The Memjet print head is developed from print head segments that are capable of producing, for example, 1600 dpi bi-level dots of liquid ink across the full width of a page. Dots are easily produced in isolation, allowing dispersed-dot dithering to be exploited to its fullest. Color planes might be printed in perfect registration, allowing ideal dot-on-dot printing. The print head enables high-speed printing using microelectromechanical ink drop technology.
Various methods, systems and apparatus relating to the present invention are disclosed in the following co-pending applications filed by the applicant or assignee of the present invention simultaneously with the present application:
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The disclosures of these co-pending applications are incorporated herein by cross-reference.
A distribution system of the above kind will output page data in a particular format, providing image data in a range of image planes. These image planes may be received at printers with print heads not fitted with a corresponding number of ink channels. Some clients to the system might desire to move image planes from one ink channel to another. A print engine/controller ideally addresses these issues.
More speed and flexibility in selection of output channels at the print head depends on development of both print head and its engine/controller. The print engine/controller architecture ideally needs to be designed to push data in volume to selected ink channels in the print head at high speed.